The present-day U.S. military qualifies by any measure as highly professional, much more so than its Cold War predecessor. Yet the purpose of today’s professionals is not to preserve peace but to fight unending wars in distant places. Intoxicated by a post-Cold War belief in its own omnipotence, the United States allowed itself to be drawn into a long series of armed conflicts, almost all of them yielding unintended consequences and imposing greater than anticipated costs. Since the end of the Cold War, U.S. forces have destroyed many targets and killed many people. Only rarely, however, have they succeeded in accomplishing their assigned political purposes. . . . [F]rom our present vantage point, it becomes apparent that the “Revolution of ‘89” did not initiate a new era of history. At most, the events of that year fostered various unhelpful illusions that impeded our capacity to recognize and respond to the forces of change that actually matter.

Andrew Bacevich


Friday, September 24, 2010

War News for Friday, September 24, 2010

NATO is reporting the death of an ISAF soldier from an insurgent attack in an undisclosed location in southern Afghanistan on Thursday, September 23rd.


British Cuts to Military Concern U.S. Officials


Reported security incidents

Baghdad:
#1: A roadside bomb explosion killed four people and wounded four others on Thursday in Baghdad, an Interior Ministry source said. The explosion took place when a minibus moving on a highway in Zaiyounah in eastern Baghdad came near, the source told Xinhua on condition of anonymity.

#2: A policeman was killed by mistake when the Finance Ministry's security guards opened fire at a suspected car bomb, police and Iraqi army sources said.


Taji:
#1: Gunmen killed Lieutenant Colonel Hazim Salih, a member of the staff of the Council of Ministers, and wounded his wife in their car in the town of Taji, 20 km (12 miles) north of Baghdad, an interior ministry source said.


Dujail:
#1: The building that houses the Scientific Research department in the city of Dujail, 130 km to the south of Tikrit, was blown up, after working hours, Thursday, causing extensive material damages but no loss of lives.


Hawija:
#1: A rocket wounded five people when it landed in a residential area in Hawija, 210 km (130 miles) north of Baghdad, late on Thursday, police sources in Hawija and Kirkuk said.


Mosul:
#1: Gunmen invaded a house and killed the owner in western Mosul, 390 km (240 miles) north of Baghdad, the police operations centre in Nineveh province said.

#2: A woman was stabbed to death near her house in eastern Mosul, the Nineveh police operations centre said.

#3: A suicide bomber killed a policeman and wounded two people, including a policeman, when he blew himself up near a mosque in central Mosul, 390 km (240 miles) north of Baghdad, a source at the provincial police operations room said.



Afghanistan: "The Forgotten War"
#1: Police say a suicide bomber targeting a NATO convoy in northern Afghanistan hit a passing bus full of wedding party guests, killing a child and injuring 28 others. Deputy Police Chief Abdul Raouf Taj says most of the people injured Friday were women and children on their way to the wedding. He says there were no deaths in the convoy, which was near the explosion in Mazari Sharif city. The bus was passing by when the suicide bomber detonated his own car and was killed.

#2: Three persons were killed when pro-Taliban militants carried out three bomb attacks on trucks and tankers ferrying supplies to foreign troops in Afghanistan in the restive Khyber tribal region of northwest Pakistan,officials said. The bombings targeted the tankers and trucks along the Pakistan-Afghanistan highway and at a parking area in Landi Kotal in Khyber Agency on thursday. The Abdullah Azam faction of the Taliban claimed responsibility for the attacks, sources said. The blasts destroyed six oil tankers, eight container trucks, a pick-up, a mini bus and two trailers. Fire fighters struggled for a long time to extinguish the blaze triggered by
the blasts.

#3: Meanwhile in Sargodha, an explosion has been heard near an air force base before rescue teams and ambulances rushed to the Tariq Abad locality in the city and shops were closed and the people started running to safe places, witnesses said.

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